About Me
In this study I interviewed several persons with disabilities and I recall meeting blind couples with children. The memory which still lingers in my mind was the challenge of bringing up children by blind couples. The story About Me is my passion of working with persons with disabilities, especially children and this was rekindled when I joined Junior Chamber International otherwise know as Jaycees. Jaycees is an organisation for young people between the ages of 18 and 40 years. The main objective of Jaycees was leadership training for young people. I rose to the position of life member and I am bestowed with the title senator within the Jaycees circles. In this organisation one of the main things which struck me most was a tenet in the creed which stated that “service to humanity is the best work of life” This tenet helped me to focus on children with disabilities. We carried out a number of projects for children with disabilities including construction of a special education school at one of the hospitals in Lusaka. By coincidence with passion for children with disabilities my own daughter was born with some complications in 1989. We did not know what it was until much later when we realized that she did not grow normally. The doctors told us that she had cerebral palsy (CP). Christabel attended physiotherapy clinic regularly and some speech therapy. Eventually she joined the public special education school. She stayed at this school up to Grade 6 and then we decided to take her to a private school for two years. The two years effort at the private school was wasted effort because when we went back to the same public school she was asked to repeat grade 6 and she completed grade 7 in 2008 without sitting for examinations. We are making plans that she sits for examinations in 2009. At the public school I was made Chairperson for the Parents Teachers association and I was in this position for four years (two terms). During my tenure of office we set objectives and we achieved most of them. The projects which were completed include purchase of two mini buses for the disabled children, construction of a gymnasium and a classroom block. In order to help Christabel with her disabilities, my wife and I did a course in Brain gym. Brain Gym is a set of simple yet effective exercises that stimulates and integrates the whole brain. The result is an increase in our Intelligence Quotient, Education Quotient and our overall brain capacity. Brain gym is essential for anyone who is involved with learning and teaching especially those teaching children with disabilities. Another aspect of dealing with children with disabilities is using Monty’s principles of Non violence. Monty Robert mainly deals with horses but his principles are applicable to human beings. I am an ardent devotee of Monty, who is God’s gift to horses. I have taken Christabel to a horse farm for horse riding as a therapy. I did it for a short time and she enjoyed it. I was unable to continue due to time constraint but I will resume this activity soon. The story About Me is not complete without talking about my profession. I am a rural sociologist with long experience in managing rural development programmes and projects. The story About Me is completed with the attainment of project mangement ceritificate. In October, 2009, I qualified as an International Development Project Manager (IDPM). This certification was given by Setym International and the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada.
|
This page is About Me. I am Protasio, a Zambian and I live in Lusaka the capital city of Zambia. I was initiated to issues of disability way back in 1976 when as a budding second year student at the University of Zambia, I was selected in a group of ten students to carry out a study on disabled people. The study was in commemoration of the year of persons with disabilities. This study took me to a number of rehabilitation centres for persons with disabilities. 
